Secret Green Club - whatever number thread

[dgbg100106]

Hi Peeps! Happy New Year! I took a break from the computer! Hope you all had great holidays! I am back at work, and the day is dragging! Here's to a great 2012!!!

Happy New Years to you too....

 

[2girlsmom]

Happy New Year to everyone! We spent a few hours on new years day at the beach, finally took Rick to the beach for the first time since he got here. Then yesterday the weather turned cold (50's for highs and 20's for lows) for the next couple days, won't be any more beach time for a while. The water was in the upper 60's, so too cold for much anyway. Rick has testing for the traffic signals job tomorrow and a phone interview with Honeywell on Thursday, so we are keeping our fingers crossed that something pans out here soon, really do NOT love being a 1 income family right now. Iowa unemployment denied him benefits, we are appealling but not holding out a lot of hope for that.

 

[Piglets Mommy]

Happy New Year to everyone! We spent a few hours on new years day at the beach, finally took Rick to the beach for the first time since he got here. Then yesterday the weather turned cold (50's for highs and 20's for lows) for the next couple days, won't be any more beach time for a while. The water was in the upper 60's, so too cold for much anyway. Rick has testing for the traffic signals job tomorrow and a phone interview with Honeywell on Thursday, so we are keeping our fingers crossed that something pans out here soon, really do NOT love being a 1 income family right now. Iowa unemployment denied him benefits, we are appealling but not holding out a lot of hope for that.

Sounds like a great way to spend New Years! It has been REALLY cold here too, and feels even colder since it had been fairly warm. Good luck to Rick in the job search. Hopefully one of these opportunities comes through for him!

 

[2girlsmom]

Hi, everyone! Rick got a call yesterday from the water works, offering him the job. They know he is interviewing with traffic (same county government) tomorrow so will wait until after that interview for him to accept/deny. So now Rick is going into the interview tomorrow and letting them know that he has an offer on the table, see if traffic will beat the pay rate. It is not great money, right at half of what he was making for gross pay, but would still get him working and active, plus with no state taxes here, he'll be net about 2/3 to 3/4 of his previous income, so should be no problem there. And they want him to start next week, a week from today, so he'll have at least one paycheck before 2/3 weekend, which means I can keep my reservations at Le Cellier for 2/4 for his birthday celebration.That is the one restaurant he has always wanted to try that we were never able to get adr for, and I made the res this time in October for February, for lunch, was SO please to be able to get that one! So I am so thrilled that we'll be able to keep it! Looks like we will be in Orlando now for the weekend of the 20th, we are going to Universal, my sister gave the kids annual passes for christmas and my folks bought Rick's annual pass for christmas too, so we are going to head up there, during January passholders get in for the early WWHP hour. Our plan is to drive up Friday night, stay with my sister and brother in law in Kissimmee, and go to the park for the early hour. They will go with us, of course, spend the day at Universal/IOA, probably spend Saturday night at their house too, then drive back on Sunday. Then we will have 2 weeks until 2/3 weekend, for a Disney weekend, and will also be in Orlando weekend of 3/3, as my best friend will be in town from Iowa (in Orlando) so we are planning to go up and go to Universal one day and Sea World the next with her, that's where she's asking to go.

 

[bigsis1970]

YaY for both you and Rick, Kristi!! I hope it all works out exactly as you want it to..

I will be in Disney 4/7-4/14 as my Daughter is playing softball in the Wide World of Sports complex if anyone wants to meet up - I don't have her schedule yet (not till Feb) but I am sure we could make something work..

 

[2girlsmom]

Thanks! We could likely come out on that weekend, it is one of the wondeful things about living 1-1/2 hours away, makes that part easy to do, and that did allow us to meet up with Heather in November and T in August, as well. We love meeting the peeps!

 

[pixie dust 112]

 

[Piglets Mommy]

Hi, everyone! Rick got a call yesterday from the water works, offering him the job. They know he is interviewing with traffic (same county government) tomorrow so will wait until after that interview for him to accept/deny. So now Rick is going into the interview tomorrow and letting them know that he has an offer on the table, see if traffic will beat the pay rate. It is not great money, right at half of what he was making for gross pay, but would still get him working and active, plus with no state taxes here, he'll be net about 2/3 to 3/4 of his previous income, so should be no problem there. And they want him to start next week, a week from today, so he'll have at least one paycheck before 2/3 weekend, which means I can keep my reservations at Le Cellier for 2/4 for his birthday celebration.That is the one restaurant he has always wanted to try that we were never able to get adr for, and I made the res this time in October for February, for lunch, was SO please to be able to get that one! So I am so thrilled that we'll be able to keep it! Looks like we will be in Orlando now for the weekend of the 20th, we are going to Universal, my sister gave the kids annual passes for christmas and my folks bought Rick's annual pass for christmas too, so we are going to head up there, during January passholders get in for the early WWHP hour. Our plan is to drive up Friday night, stay with my sister and brother in law in Kissimmee, and go to the park for the early hour. They will go with us, of course, spend the day at Universal/IOA, probably spend Saturday night at their house too, then drive back on Sunday. Then we will have 2 weeks until 2/3 weekend, for a Disney weekend, and will also be in Orlando weekend of 3/3, as my best friend will be in town from Iowa (in Orlando) so we are planning to go up and go to Universal one day and Sea World the next with her, that's where she's asking to go.

I'm glad things are looking good for him on the job front!

YaY for both you and Rick, Kristi!! I hope it all works out exactly as you want it to..

I will be in Disney 4/7-4/14 as my Daughter is playing softball in the Wide World of Sports complex if anyone wants to meet up - I don't have her schedule yet (not till Feb) but I am sure we could make something work..

Very Cool! I'm sure you will have a blast!

Nothing exciting here, just back to the daily grind. Have a great day, Peeps!

 

[pixie dust 112]

Excuse me, but where the heck is everybody??????

Katie and I went to the muthaland land week and had a great itme. Beautiful weather! We saw a marriage proposal at the Wishes dessert party! It was fantastic!

 

[dgbg100106]

Excuse me, but where the heck is everybody??????

Katie and I went to the muthaland land week and had a great itme. Beautiful weather! We saw a marriage proposal at the Wishes dessert party! It was fantastic!

Well tell us all about your trip! And welcome back..

 

[2girlsmom]

Welcome back, PD! Its been a little crazy around here of late, have been covering other peoples' jobs at work, so not a lot of dis time. Rick started working last week, so far so good. He'll have his first paycheck on 2/3, just in time for us to spend that weekend up at Disney to celebrate his birthday (turns 39 on the 7th). This past weekend we went up on Saturday, my sister and I took the girls to see B&B 3d at DTD theater (the guys saw Underworld Awakening), then spent the night at sis's, before heading to the dark side yesterday for the day. We had a great time, no longer than 20 minutes on anything, including the Harry Potter ride, FJ, with 15 minute wait times! I had never seen it that low, was amazed. Most everything we went on was literally walk on. Rick and the girls all got APs for christmas presents, so this was the first opportunity to use them (we've got a couple times last summer/fall, using my sister comp tickets and my ap). It is nice to be able to go and not feel like we have to fit everything in, cause we know we can always come back. The plan for weekend of the 3rd is to drive up on the 3rd, maybe go over to MK for fireworks that night, then Saturday morning we have adr for Kona breakfast, may hit a ride or two at MK in the morning, then Le Cellier lunch and spend the afternoon/evening at Epcot. Sunday we will plan to go to HS in the morning, will probably jump over mid day to AK for a couple things, and depending on if we have FP for TSM may head back to HS Sunday evening for a last few rides before heading home.

 

[2girlsmom]

Welcome back, PD! Its been a little crazy around here of late, have been covering other peoples' jobs at work, so not a lot of dis time. Rick started working last week, so far so good. He'll have his first paycheck on 2/3, just in time for us to spend that weekend up at Disney to celebrate his birthday (turns 39 on the 7th). This past weekend we went up on Saturday, my sister and I took the girls to see B&B 3d at DTD theater (the guys saw Underworld Awakening), then spent the night at sis's, before heading to the dark side yesterday for the day. We had a great time, no longer than 20 minutes on anything, including the Harry Potter ride, FJ, with 15 minute wait times! I had never seen it that low, was amazed. Most everything we went on was literally walk on. Rick and the girls all got APs for christmas presents, so this was the first opportunity to use them (we've got a couple times last summer/fall, using my sister comp tickets and my ap). It is nice to be able to go and not feel like we have to fit everything in, cause we know we can always come back. The plan for weekend of the 3rd is to drive up on the 3rd, maybe go over to MK for fireworks that night, then Saturday morning we have adr for Kona breakfast, may hit a ride or two at MK in the morning, then Le Cellier lunch and spend the afternoon/evening at Epcot. Sunday we will plan to go to HS in the morning, will probably jump over mid day to AK for a couple things, and depending on if we have FP for TSM may head back to HS Sunday evening for a last few rides before heading home.

 

[Piglets Mommy]

Excuse me, but where the heck is everybody??????

Katie and I went to the muthaland land week and had a great itme. Beautiful weather! We saw a marriage proposal at the Wishes dessert party! It was fantastic!

Sorry, real life got in the way of my DIS time! Glad you guys had fun!

Welcome back, PD! Its been a little crazy around here of late, have been covering other peoples' jobs at work, so not a lot of dis time. Rick started working last week, so far so good. He'll have his first paycheck on 2/3, just in time for us to spend that weekend up at Disney to celebrate his birthday (turns 39 on the 7th). This past weekend we went up on Saturday, my sister and I took the girls to see B&B 3d at DTD theater (the guys saw Underworld Awakening), then spent the night at sis's, before heading to the dark side yesterday for the day. We had a great time, no longer than 20 minutes on anything, including the Harry Potter ride, FJ, with 15 minute wait times! I had never seen it that low, was amazed. Most everything we went on was literally walk on. Rick and the girls all got APs for christmas presents, so this was the first opportunity to use them (we've got a couple times last summer/fall, using my sister comp tickets and my ap). It is nice to be able to go and not feel like we have to fit everything in, cause we know we can always come back. The plan for weekend of the 3rd is to drive up on the 3rd, maybe go over to MK for fireworks that night, then Saturday morning we have adr for Kona breakfast, may hit a ride or two at MK in the morning, then Le Cellier lunch and spend the afternoon/evening at Epcot. Sunday we will plan to go to HS in the morning, will probably jump over mid day to AK for a couple things, and depending on if we have FP for TSM may head back to HS Sunday evening for a last few rides before heading home.

Glad Rick is working again, I'm sure that is a big relief! So jealous you all can run over for a weekend. I have seen some great offsite deals, but unfortunately, you still have to GET there! LOL!

Brandi, How's the foot healing?

 

[dgbg100106]

the foot is ok...

I am still able to walk or stand, I have to keep my foot above my heart...

I have the stitches out but have these paper strips over the site. I am still working on the flexibility.

No more pain pills, but I am feeling better.

Thanks for asking.

 

[Piglets Mommy]

the foot is ok...

I am still able to walk or stand, I have to keep my foot above my heart...

I have the stitches out but have these paper strips over the site. I am still working on the flexibility.

No more pain pills, but I am feeling better.

Thanks for asking.

Sounds like it has been a long road. Hope you are back on your feet soon.

 

[dgbg100106]

Sounds like it has been a long road. Hope you are back on your feet soon.

me too...

 

[katlas&kids]

Been busy here. Made it through the 1 year date of Bill's death. Not much sleep for 3 weeks. Kids fine during the day, but had a hard time at night without any distractions. Then under the weather. Moving on now & kids are a bit better, I think.

glad you are coming along Brandi!

HI, PD, Heather & Kristi!!

 

[dwheatl]

I'm here. Sending hugs to Kat, Brandi, and anyone else who needs one.

 

[pixie dust 112]

Kristi ~ Glad Rick has started work!

Brandi ~ glad the pain is going away!

Kat ~ about a zillion hugs coming your way! I can't believe it's been a year already. I don;t know how you get through the day. I guess we just gotta do what ya gotta do when you have kids!

Heather ~ totally agree, it's the getting there that is tough and expensive for us up here in the Northeast!

Our trip was short but really nice and we really did fit everything in! Don;t know if I told all of you, but we actually have the cheapest resort rates at Disney this year. We had told our kids that we weren't going to Disney this year as I gave up one of my jobs this year. It's a HUGE hit on our income, but I just couldn't work for the new boss. We're going to be poorer, but I don't regret the decision as I seriously question the ethical standards of the new boss, and I can sleep better at night not being involved with that particular administration so it's all good....anyway back to the WDW story... I have to say the girls were very understanding and said that they love going to Disney, but they recognized that they have been incredibly fortunate to go as many times as they have. Well a day or 2 after I told them we weren't going, a friend who has DVC called me. They had 230 points that they were going to lose in August if not used. She offered the points to me if I would just pay the maintenance for the year's points!!! For that we had her book 8 nights in a studio at Old Key West for DH and the girls who are still in HS over Easter Break and another 4 nights in a Studio at AKL for LizzY and I last week.

I have to say we took AKL by default because with such a late reservation that was the only DVC that had 4 night available for a studio....OMG We loved it totally relaxing resort. To be continued.....

 

[pixie dust 112]

Parks were a bit crowded the Sunday (It was Martin Luther King weekend) but they were empty for the next 3 days. We wanted to do a 4 parks in one day thing. So we scheduled that for Monday. The rule was we needed to do at least 2 rides at each park. Well we easily did that and I think we did about a total of 20 rides altogether rather than only 8! We had breakfast at Animal Kingdom and lunch at EPCOT. We easily got all the parks done, and though we did earlu EMHs we did not need the evening EMHs. As a matter of fact we even had time to go back to the resort and then go to DDT for Dinner at Wolfgang Puck Express!

The highlight of the trip was our last night there. We scheduled the wishes dessert party at Tomorrowland Terrace. It is a great party that gives you a nice place to sit and relax to watch the fireworks without fighting the crowds. Anyway we were all standing by the railing and the fireworks started. I suddenly heard cheering which was weird becasue it was the beginning of the show. It turns out that the guy at the table next to us had just proposed to his girlfriend! He had photopass photographers there to take pictures. She said yes and the waitresses immediately gave them just engaged pins to wear! They also put special desserts on their table. Chocolate covered strawberries decorated as groomsmen and bridesmaids! (They had friends with them!) Also another dessert platter with a bride and groom chocolate covered strawberries surrounded by candies that were designed to look like the Magic Kingdom! It was amazing. I wish I was one of those obnoxious people who would ask them if it was ok to take pictures!